Video 7:08
Unions gear up for Coalition IR fight

Chris UhlmannUpdated
Tue 23 Apr 2013, 9:17 PM AEST

With the Federal Opposition's industrial relations policy due to be released before the budget, speculation about its content is rife but, either way, the Union movement is preparing for a fight over the issue.

Transcript

LEIGH SALES, PRESENTER: When the Howard Government was voted out of office, its much maligned Work Choices policy was a key factor in the minds of voters. Once again come September, industrial relations is set to be one of the big issues that determines how Australians vote. On one side, the Government and unions are keen to revive the spectre of a return to Howard era style laws. On the other side, the Coalition and business leaders are slamming the Government's proposed changes to the Fair Work laws saying they continue a pattern of pandering to the unions.

Political editor Chris Uhlmann reports.

CHRIS UHLMANN, REPORTER: Workplace relations is the ghost that haunts the Coalition.

JOHN HOWARD, FORMER AUSTRALIAN PRIME MINISTER: I'm very proud of what we did in the area of industrial relations, very proud.

CHRIS UHLMANN: But parts of the Howard era regime after 2004 dramatically overreached, allowing bosses to offer contracts that cut wages and conditions and letting businesses with less than 100 employees sack people without the risk of being charged with unfair dismissal.

DAVE OLIVER, ACTU SECRETARY: Once they got offers, particularly once they got control of the Senate, they then imposed Work Choices on to the, on to the community.

CHRIS UHLMANN: The union movement's furious response forced the Government back down before the 2007 election.

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CHRIS UHLMANN: But it was too late. During the 2010 election Tony Abbott was still trying to kill Work Choices.

DAVE OLIVER: We're more concerned about what they're not saying than what they are going to say.

CHRIS UHLMANN: Right now the Opposition's policy is little more than a set of dot points.

ERIC ABETZ: We see three issues under the Fair Work Act. The militancy issue, the productivity issue and the flexibility issue, and these three areas will be addressed in our policy.

CHRIS UHLMANN: Business is convinced the Coalition will win government in September and is pushing it hard to commit to changing the Fair Work Act. There's also an outcry against proposed workplace laws, it believes Labor's written to curry favour with the union movement.

INNES WILLOX, AUSTRALIAN INDUSTRY GROUP: We can identify about 157 different proposals that have ah, occurred through the Fair Work Act when it was first introduced and since which are very clearly pro union, 157 pro union amendments and not one that assists employers in any demonstrable way.

CHRIS UHLMANN: The Workplace Relations Minister dismisses the claim.

BILL SHORTEN, WORKPLACE RELATIONS MINISTER: We're trying to make sure we have flexible workplaces, family friendly workplaces. I get the right of the employer groups, trade unions for employers to make their points, that's really necessary in a democracy. But one thing we won't do is allow the - some employer groups to force us back to the Work Choices era which I think some of them miss.

CHRIS UHLMANN: Australia's miners hope the Coalition's IR policy will foreshadow significant change, beginning with crimping union right of entry to work sites.

STEVE KNOTT: We have no objection to unions coming on to site provided there are a reasonable number of them and the frequency is reasonable.

CHRIS UHLMANN: There's also a demand to limit the scope of enterprise bargaining.

STEVE KNOTT: You can have a dispute about whether or not a union official get a mobile phone from the company or access to the company's IT arrangements or a union picnic day to go and get their members together once a year.

CHRIS UHLMANN: And Steve Knott says the law now allows unions to frustrate the development of new projects.

STEVE KNOTT: One of the previous legislation, if you couldn't reach agreement with the unions you could go and register an agreement with the industrial tribunal. Under the new laws you can't do that so the unions have all the power.

CHRIS UHLMANN: Small business wants changes to a penalty rate regime it says is out of kilter with demands of a 24/7 economy.

INNES WILLOX: And what we have now is a situation where employers on many occasions simply cannot afford to pay staff the penalty rates that are being demanded by the union movement.

CHRIS UHLMANN: The Coalition feels industry's pain.

ERIC ABETZ: We as a Coalition are looking in relation to the right of entry issues, and will be announcing our policy in due course. Labor's Fair Work Act does in fact allow strike first, talk later and I've highlighted that as an issue of concern. Clearly it is within the national interest to ensure that new projects can go ahead expeditiously.

CHRIS UHLMANN: But so far that's it. Business complaints are mounting but the Opposition's industrial relations policy is a string of concerns without solutions.

ERIC ABETZ: And there are other areas of concern that I have enunciated in a variety of speeches and will be bringing all that together in our policy announcement in due course.

CHRIS UHLMANN: Business frets the Coalition's response to its long list of complaints will be a timid affair, especially on the once totemic Liberal issue of individual agreements. Because in an effort to present a small a target as possible, everything will be framed within Labor's Fair Work Act.

ERIC ABETZ: As far as we're concerned, individual flexibility is important, but within the parameters of the Labor Party's legislation and at all times subject to Labor's better off overall test.

CHRIS UHLMANN: Unions say the Coalition's policy will be a facade that hides its real intent. Members have already been levied to build a $4 million war chest for another election year assault.

DAVE OLIVER: Well, we are gearing up for a major campaign around the issues that matter to workers and ah, right around this country now we've got unions out there that are campaigning on their issues.

CHRIS UHLMANN: It's a fight the Coalition is expecting.

ERIC ABETZ: No matter what I announce, no matter what Tony Abbott announces, the union movement will be against it.

CHRIS UHLMANN: But on two issues the Coalition has been explicit, reinstating the building industry watchdog and subjecting union officials to the same rules as company directors.

ERIC ABETZ: To have a specialist organisation within Fair Work that will monitor the way trade unions spend their money to ensure that the Health Services Union rip offs can't occur in the future.

DAVE OLIVER: This just shows that despite what he's saying out there, the ideology is still there, the same ideology that underpinned Work Choices.

CHRIS UHLMANN: The Coalition believes it was abandoned by business during the Work Choices fight. So it won't be taking any risks on business's behalf. So it might propose changes to a union's right of entry and enterprise bargaining, but not to penalty rates or individual contracts. But we won't have to wait long. The battle lines on this fight will be drawn soon.

TONY ABBOTT: At the precise time I'm afraid I'll have to prolong your frustration.